Double delight for Chris

Martin Dowey

Hole in ones are like buses according to North Cliff golfer Chris Smith.

Smith hadn’t holed an ace in 15 years before the weekend’s outing, but two in quick succession boosted his tally to seven in a 30-year career.

The 38-year-old former South Cliff junior champion bagged his first with a nine iron on the 145-yard seventh and then followed that up with a second with a six iron on the 15th - a 210 yarder.

“It’s a shame there were no cars on offer,” joked Smith.

“Through the H1 rewards scheme I’ll be getting two Hugo Boss watches though - one for each wrist. I would have preferred a car though.”

Smith, who dedicated the feat to his nine-week old son Mason, was playing alongside Scarborough Hockey Club’s former skipper Robin Myers and Scarborough News columnist Derrick Arden when he achieved his double ace.

His landmark comes almost 11 years after his appearance in The Open at Sandwich in 2003.

Smith, who works at Laserprint, ended up coming sixth in the 36-hole President’s Weekend competition due to a deluge making playing conditions very difficult.

But he was more than delighted with his efforts.

He added: “They are like buses. I haven’t had a hole-in-one since 1999 and now I’ve had two in the same round, which is unbelievable.

“We had a bit of a drink afterwards, but fortunately I only had to buy the one bottle of whiskey rather than two.

“I didn’t want to lose the ball for my first hole-in-one so I used a different one for my second.